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This past Tuesday my 622 got the 616 firmware. It looked good until
I got to the Smithsonian Channel. That channel now suffers audio
dropouts that last about a tenth of a second three or four times
a tenth of a second apart and this repeats every two or three seconds
continuously. It makes the audio stuttery or gurgly to listen to
and basically makes the Smithsonian Channel unwatchable. Previous
to 616 I've had no particular problem with audio drop outs.

I tried a powerdown reset and that didn't change anything. I can
record the channel and the recording exhibits the dropouts too.

I briefly checked most other HD channels and they seem ok for
audio drop outs, but I didn't spend a long time on each channel.
The Smithsonian Channel suffers this every few seconds.

When I posted about this problem, it had been going on
continuously for at least a day or so (ever since the
first time I watched the Smithsonian Channel
since Monday before the L616 firmware upgrade). At
the same time I posted the problem here, I sent the
same info to dishquality -- that was about 9am MST. Now,
about 11:30am -- the problem seems fixed. Do you
suppose there is a connection? Hopefully this was
just something in the uplink of that channel.
If the problem returns for any length of time, I'll
post again.

When i read your initial post w5pny that is exactly what I was thinking. Definitely report if you see it happening again.

<strong class='bbc'>New Member of the 9K club & 922/612 User<br /></strong><span style='font-size: 8px;'>"A release is not a release until it is released." - Me. <br />"To the true believer, no proof is necessary. To the non believer, no proof is sufficient." - Peter James (Derived from a Stewert Chase Quote)</span>

I live in the Wake Forest/Raleigh, NC area. I got the L6.16 software update. I have to admit, I'm a happy camper so far. The audio dropouts are apparently fixed on my local channels. It's fixed when I playback from DVR recordings and when I pause/resume a channel I'm watching.

However ... I'll have to spend another month or so before I declare 100% satisfaction on this audio dropout issue though. As other people have said, OTHER channels sometimes start having the audio dropout problems once they fix it for the main channels that people have been complaining about. In my case it was ABC and FOX that were the worst before I got the L6.16 software. Hopefully, NBC and CBS will work fine with no audio dropouts.

THANK YOU DISH NETWORK ENGINEERS FOR FIXING THIS PROBLEM WITH AUDIODROPOUTS !!!!!!!! IT'S BEEN DRIVING US NUTS FOR A FEW MONTHS !!!!

PLEASE KEEP WORKING ON ALL THESE TYPES OF ISSUES ON ALL OF THE CHANNELS ... AUDIO DROPOUTS AND OTHER VIDEO BLIPS, ETC. KEEP ON TESTING ALL YOUR SOFTWARE ALL THE TIME IN REAL WORLD SITUATIONS. LISTEN TO US END USERS ON FORUMS LIKE THIS ONE.

I'm laughing right now. Really I am. But I can't seem to understand this strange message I just received from the Dish Quality e-mail box. Please note this is a box whose name, assigned by Dish, is "Audio-Video Quality"

I wrote to Dish Quality a week or so ago about L616 and how it did not solve audio drop problems on NBC and CBS in the St. Louis DMA. This is the response I received:

The dishquality email box is managed by the Quality Assurance department; we only handle picture quality issues. We have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate department.

Um, really? Then why didn't the four or five other folks who I've corresponded with since early October tell me I'm writing to the wrong e-mail or dealing with the wrong people?

i live in st louis and just upgrade from 622 to 722
and i am getting these dropouts alot now
speed, hbo, nbc,cbs, and others
when playing back on dvr
also had complete freeze on 'worst week' twice last night
had to press >> button and it would snap out of it

I have also had the picture freeze issue that requires a rewind to fix. Taken alone, this problem would not be as bad, but since it only happens on programs that exhibit the worst audio drops, it's only adding fuel to the fire.

It probably goes without saying (and I think I've said it before), but these problems make the pending rate increase particularly hard to swallow.

i live in st louis and just upgrade from 622 to 722and i am getting these dropouts alot nowspeed, hbo, nbc,cbs, and others when playing back on dvralso had complete freeze on 'worst week' twice last nighthad to press >> button and it would snap out of it

i thought higher numbers meant better equip. and less problems

nope

If you are getting these a lot on national channels and you just swapped receivers, I would suspect you have a installation problem since there are not more widespread reports of these issues.

<strong class='bbc'>New Member of the 9K club & 922/612 User<br /></strong><span style='font-size: 8px;'>"A release is not a release until it is released." - Me. <br />"To the true believer, no proof is necessary. To the non believer, no proof is sufficient." - Peter James (Derived from a Stewert Chase Quote)</span>

Some of them can be heat related, signal related, possible a bad 722. Those are some of the issues that quickly come to mind.

The reports from the people in St Louis that I have read have been centered around local channels. What you are reporting in National channels: HBO and speed. That is why I mentioned it and suggested looking deeper into it.

As for the local issues, those are obviously more widespread so really not much I can offer in terms of that issue except to say... Keep details flowing. What I would suggest on the national issues you are seeing is to be specific in your experiences as to frequency, Is it program specific, type of hardware involved etc. More details the better.

Edited by Ron Barry, 22 January 2009 - 11:10 AM.

<strong class='bbc'>New Member of the 9K club & 922/612 User<br /></strong><span style='font-size: 8px;'>"A release is not a release until it is released." - Me. <br />"To the true believer, no proof is necessary. To the non believer, no proof is sufficient." - Peter James (Derived from a Stewert Chase Quote)</span>

Several months ago, Dish upgraded my DVR/receiver from the 942 (which never had a problem) to the 722. The good news is I get more HD content. The bad news is I lost HD movies, although I was told that I would keep everything I had plus get the additional HD content. I was using the OTA tuner in the 722 to record local channels while I watched a different local channel using the TV HD tuner. Although I didn't have TV Guide for the local HD channels because I could see no reason to pay for SD local from Dish since I have a great antenna and pick up all the Dayton Ohio and some Cincinnati stations in both HD and SD. Life was great and I had no problems with the 722.

Since analog broadcasting is going to cease soon and I still have several analog only TV's I decided to add the local channel Dish package. They have a new offer that allowed the addition of local channels (SD only) and MAX for only $0.01 more than I was paying. Life was even better.

Now I find lots of problems with the 722. I get HD drop outs on local channels that last for up to a second. When playing back DVR recorded shows, I am experiencing lockups that last a second or two or even three.

I can't tell you exactly when these problems started, only that they seem to be getting worse. I can't tie it to the local channel upgrade but it could be. Originally I thought it was antenna/amplifier problem. Then I started to think I was having a HDD failure but now believe it is software in the 722. I checked the software version and it is 616. I checked the HDD temp and it has been 131 max with an average of 120, which I don't believe to be excessive.

I got so frustrated last evening that I searched and found this blog. Since I am now convinced that it is the 722 and not my antenna/amplifier, I will start collecting data to get a better feeling as to what is happening and when.

I noticed something the other night, watching a recording of Sunday's night broadcast of The Mentalist, which is a CBS program. It's on KMOV/Channel 4 here in St. Louis, and this station has been one of the worst for dropouts lately, along with KSDK (NBC)/Channel 5.

During the first commercial break, Channel 4 ran a crawl about the upcoming digital transition. While this crawl was on the screen, I experienced not one dropout. Almost immediately, when the crawl disappeared, the audio drop problems returned with a vengeance. The drops continued throughout the program -- until, in the last commercial break, they ran the crawl message again. Without audio drops, of course.

I'm not sure how running a crawl would affect the actual signal or how it could make a difference -- so this could be a coincidence -- but I did think it was worth adding to the discussion.

I should mention that during last night's LOST premiere, I experienced exactly ZERO audio drops. LOST, of course, is on ABC. Previous to the short-lived but somewhat successful L615, this station had some of the worst audio problems.

I got so frustrated last evening that I searched and found this blog. Since I am now convinced that it is the 722 and not my antenna/amplifier, I will start collecting data to get a better feeling as to what is happening and when.

First off welcome to DBSTalk tpflum. Yes definitely collect more info. The more the better. I don't recall any other reports from your DMA.

One thing you can do is verify that you are getting a good signal on the Transponder that host yours localls. You can do this by when you are on this channel bring up the DIsh Point screen and watching the signal for a few minutes. See if you have a solid signal or if it is jumping around. That would help rule out a signal issue.

<strong class='bbc'>New Member of the 9K club & 922/612 User<br /></strong><span style='font-size: 8px;'>"A release is not a release until it is released." - Me. <br />"To the true believer, no proof is necessary. To the non believer, no proof is sufficient." - Peter James (Derived from a Stewert Chase Quote)</span>

I noticed something the other night, watching a recording of Sunday's night broadcast of The Mentalist, which is a CBS program. It's on KMOV/Channel 4 here in St. Louis, and this station has been one of the worst for dropouts lately, along with KSDK (NBC)/Channel 5.

During the first commercial break, Channel 4 ran a crawl about the upcoming digital transition. While this crawl was on the screen, I experienced not one dropout. Almost immediately, when the crawl disappeared, the audio drop problems returned with a vengeance. The drops continued throughout the program -- until, in the last commercial break, they ran the crawl message again. Without audio drops, of course.

I'm not sure how running a crawl would affect the actual signal or how it could make a difference -- so this could be a coincidence -- but I did think it was worth adding to the discussion.

I should mention that during last night's LOST premiere, I experienced exactly ZERO audio drops. LOST, of course, is on ABC. Previous to the short-lived but somewhat successful L615, this station had some of the worst audio problems.

I noticed EXACTLY the same observations (every one!) on the same station/time/city. This must be an obvious clue to the root cause.

Last evening, I only watched live, OTA HD from the local CBS station. At 9:00 I watched CBS Criminal Minds using the OTA tuner in the 722. I remember 1 instance of signal breakup that lasted for a second.

At 10:00 I recorded NBC Law&Order using the 722 OTA tuner and switched the TV to its tuner to watch CSI:NY. I saw no signal problems using the TV tuner.

Tonight, I expect the situation to be about the same except at 10:00, I plan on recording both an OTA program in HD using the 722 tuner and the USA Burn Notice (HD).

I don't watch any local channel programming provided by Dish on this TV as they only provide SD for the local channels. My wife watches the local SD programming on a bedroom TV and she hasn't complained about any problems. I really don't think we have a signal problem with Dish on any of their satellites.

I have excellent signal from the OTA antenna. The antenna is big and the TV tower is about 16 miles away with no obstructions. I can even receive some Cincinnati HD programming (about 65 miles to downtown Cinti). There is no reason that I should be getting occasional signal breakups when using the 722 OTA HD tuner on local channels.

As long as the networks are broadcasting new programming, I am watching that and recording any conflicting programs for later viewing. Over the holidays, there wasn't much new so that is when I started watching the previously recorded shows and I noticed the playback stutters, signal dropouts, and short term lock ups.

I have not been having any audio issues until this update. Recorded Lost
on Wed, watched it Thrs, it was unwatchable due to audio being out of
sync with video. Watched live news Thursday night, same audio
sync problems. So, both recorded and live broadcasts are out of
sync. This seems to be continuous. My TV is now unwatchable. I never
had a problem before.

I'm just checking in to report that I have L616 and so far this is the WORST update for the St Louis area.

So far I have noticed Channel 4 and Channel 5 (CBS and NBC) are terrible. I have audio drop outs almost constantly. Every minute or so. It also introduced video freezing. You have to rewind to unlock the video. Finally, during the audio dropouts, I also get skipping where the show skips 1 or 2 seconds. If I rewind back I can usually see the skipped video.

Does anyone have any suggestions for communicating this through Dish. I dont want to waste my time but I would like to let them know of the problem.

I just got off the phone with Dish. Customer Service connected me to DVR Tech Support. They found an engineering note that was asking for details. The Engineering note said not to replace the DVR since the probem will most likely re-occur. They took down details.

Most importantly, they wanted to know what channels had the problem.

I suggest everyone give them a call and talk to DVR tech support just to keep them informed of what you are experiencing.

Yes, NBC and CBS (4 and 5) in St. Louis do seem like they are the worst for the audio drops.

I have been communicating with Dish folks via the dishquality e-mail. I did receive a strange response this week (see an earlier post -- but basically they said it was only for picture issues) but later received an e-mail from a Dish engineer about the problem. I have e-mailed him back but not heard anything. So if you don't have time to sit on hold, this is a good route to use. The address is dishquality@echostar.com.

As with any CSR-type encounter, I've found it works best to give as much info as you can in each e-mail you send -- not necessarily relying on the person to follow the e-mail trail.

On Friday, I watched two USA shows without any problems while recording 2 CBS shows for later viewing. Last evening I watched three off the air 722 recorded shows. The first was CBS show Numbers recorded 1/16/09. I played back without a problem.

The second was NBC's Life that was recorded early in December 08. Twice during the playback, I experienced for lack of a better word, a crash. What happened was a slight video interruption and a very loud, crash or static like noise. Loud is not an overstatement. I have heard that noise before but not for several weeks and it happened before I started making notes of the circumstances and all the recent problems.

Then I watched a NBC Law & Order, also recorded in December. The show would play back for awhile OK, then go into a pause for 1-5 seconds and then continue on without intervention. It happened a dozen times during the show. Several times I saw an error box pop up that stated the signal had been lost and several other times I saw a very short term signal breakup. It was frustrating to say the least.

ViP622 here. As I reported before, I was having audio dropouts with HDNet after FW 6.16. I called tech support and they went with me over the reset routine, basically collecting information from all info menus, then doing a sat diagnosis (System Info), then a "Check Switch" reset, then a hard reboot, then dowloading the channel programming guide again. It *appears* that the audio dropouts are gone!!! I watched Star Trek Enterprise yesterday after the procedure and had no dropouts, while the norm was to have about at least six during a show.
I hope that the fix is permanent. Had no dropouts for 24 hours now.

I have had continuing problems with both off the air recorded programs and off the air live broadcasts using the 722 built in tuner.

Tonight, I tried to watch NBC nightly news. It was a disaster. Several dozen times the show would freeze or the signal would break up. I tried the pause button and once actually got into the pause mode and it showed that I was already 5 minutes behind live time but I had not paused it myself. The show was almost unwatchable and I missed a lot of content. Once, when it came back alive after a lock up, it started back at the beginning of the show.

I called Dish after the show and the rep had me go into a diagnostic page of the menu. He determined that the hard drive was failing so they are sending me a replacement receiver. I don't know why a failing hard drive would cause the signal breakup problem but it certainly would explain the lockups on DVR playback.

One last weird symptom that I experienced last evening, was a several second (not an exaggeration) out of sync condition between the sound and picture. It started after a lockup while watching a recorded show. I was able to resync by hitting the pause button.